And here is Miriam two weeks later. With us was a dear old friend who was MC at the reception.

We married very young. Is that a good idea? It seems to have worked for us. I have never regretted very much of our life together.

how many?

I have always lived close to a larger city. In idaho it was Boise, 25 miles away. In Texas it was Dallas and Fort Worth each about 35 miles away. The population of that area was about 3 1/2 million people. That was the largest population center I ever lived near.

When we talked about Idaho, Texans yawned and suggested that Idaho was a tiny backwater place, though none had been there.

This week, I wondered about the size of these three areas.

In Idaho what we call the “treasure valley” (bet there are dozens of others by that name), has a population of about 700,000. A good bit smaller than the metroplex, but hardly tiny.

Then I checked the area where we live in Washington State. Stretch the boundaries 30 miles and the population might be fudged up to 70,000.

So now we really are in a fairly isolated spot with not too many people.

No wonder there are so few stores. No wonder I sometimes can’t find what I want. I guess it is OK. We use the internet more. Buy what we need when we go to Portland or Boise.

Of course, with less population, comes a lot of good things too, and I am busy absorbing some of those!

Miriam at her high school graduation

I married her two weeks later.

Indeed, that was a long time ago.

Here, buried in the horror of AD, it is easy for me to forgot the classy lady she was. I get out these pictures to remind me.

back

I am back in Washington State.

When I left Idaho the temperature was in the high 30's, as I traveled along it got as warm as 48 at the summit over the Blue Mountains.

Soon I ran into a bank of fog and the temp dropped to 29, by the time I got to Walla Walla it was 22. The road had been clear and dry all the way to the low temps, then there was snow cover and very slick conditions. Fortunately the sanding trucks had been out so it was not as bad as it had been earlier.

There was a big truck on it's side along the freeway. They had wrapped it with Police tape and left it there for better weather. Don't blame them.

I drove into daughters driveway, stopped the pickup and went inside. Later I came out to it and it was not going to move: flat ground; 3 or 4" of snow and it just spun (of course the pickup was pulling a pretty well loaded trailer!).

Miriam was glad to see me. She was sure I had been gone for a month. Her birthday was the day before I arrived (there was a pretty serious storm going through on the day I had intended to return). She was full of questions, largely the same ones over and over. She had to sleep those off.

But the trip was successful. I had three things I wanted to get done and all three were accomplished.

Weather in the 40's should slowly melt the snow. That is good.